Ever since my ill-fated trip to Dhaka, I haven’t had the energy to write and have been, perhaps, trying too hard to think of profound things to say. Attempts at intelligence have failed so am going to blab away for a bit just to break the silence.

Got infuriated at an article about the G8 Summit/Live 8/Bob Geldof in the Herald a couple of months ago. The writer “slammed” Bob Geldof and said something like, while Live Aid was very successful, Sir Geldof has made a fool of himself with Live 8. Raising money is a lot easier than raising consciousness and awareness. And besides, he did his bit, in the way that he knows best. What did we do?

Lovely little excerpt from Winnie the Pooh: “Poetry and Hums aren’t things which you get, they’re things which get you. And all you can do is to go where they can find you.” – Winnie

b.i.t.s. has a new, alternative website up that can be accessed by going to http://www.bitsonline.net and selecting “The Indulgence Website”.

Bought a tub of Hico vanilla icecream the other day and the lid looked like this:

Lots of possibilities, depending on which way you look at the shape …

Dhaka was very trying – it’s a poor, filthy, hot, humid, over-crowded city and very different from how my mother remembers it. However, meeting Shahidul Alam again, as well as all the Drik people, was hugely inspiring.

Shahidul took us on a boat ride on the Boorhi Ganga river and encountering Haroun the Boatman was one of the few highlights of my trip.

Haroun is 40 and has been transporting people back and forth, across the river, for the last 25 years. He used to sell pots and pans but gave it up after he realized that the only way to survive in that business was by being corrupt. He wasn’t willing to do so and switched careers after a 5 year struggle with the pots and pans mafia. Heard lots of other horror stories about how the poor are exploited – such as the ex-army officer who has “qabza karoed” a water pipe and sells dirty water to slum dwellers and makes Rs. 40,000 a month. Obviously, he has many other “enterprises”.

A few weeks ago, a tiny bird got stuck inside my lounge. She was really cute but completely devoid of brain cells. It took her over 12 hours to get out.

Later …